South Korean launch vehicle, to consist of a Russian Angara first stage, a South Korean liquid propellant second stage, and a South Korean solid propellant apogee kick motor. Scheduled for first flight by 2015. In August 2006 the Korean press reported that the first and second stages would both be Angara-UM modules... how this configuration would work (stacked versus parallel) was unclear.

The originally-planned second stage would logically be a repackaged version of the liquid oxygen/kerosene stage tested on the KSR-III in 2002 and originally intended to power the completely-indigenous original version of the KSR-I launch vehicle.

Korea South South Korea became familiar with large-scale rocketry through maintenance and modification activities on American-supplied Honest John and Nike Hercules tactical missiles. By the 1990's Korea had developed an independent capability to manufacture solid propellant rocket motors of up to one tonne mass. In 1990 KARI was funded to build the first indigenous sounding rockets, flown as the KSR-I and KSR-II. In December 1997 KARI was allowed to proceed with development of liquid oxygen/kerosene rocket motor for an orbital launcher, but this was abandoned when the South Korean government decided it wanted to be among the top ten spacefaring nations by 2015. The existing program was too limited in growth potential to allow that. Therefore it was decided to leapfrog the technology by contracting with Russian companies. First launch of the KSLV-I launch vehicle from the new space centre took place in 2010. More...

See also

KSLV South Korean launch vehicle family. Originally they were to be of completely indigenous design; but in 2005 it was announced that they would use the (in-development, unflown) Russian Angara booster module as the basis. The program, like that of the Angara, was subject to continuous funding shortages and schedule delays. First launch 2009.08.25. More...

Goheung South Korean space center, built on Woenaro Island, off the Goheung peninsula, at the southern end of the Korean peninsula. The space center would be built in four phases through 2015 on a 4.95 million square meter landfill on the shore of the island. More...